Jd
J.T. de Vries
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Making Sense of Street Life
Exploring Place Meaning through Photovoice and Interviews with Young People Experiencing Homelessness in Amsterdam
Youth homelessness is commonly approached through individual and structural explanations, while less attention is paid to the role of space in how homelessness is experienced in everyday life. This research examines how young adults experiencing homelessness (YEH) in Amsterdam attribute meaning to urban public spaces and how these meanings are related to the affordances of these spaces.
A qualitative research design was used, combining photovoice with semi-structured interviews. Nineteen YEH participated in the research and documented places that played a role in their everyday lives using digital cameras. The photographs were used as interview prompts to discuss how participants used and experienced these places. The data were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis, using functional, social, and experiential place meaning and enabling and constraining affordances as analytical concepts.
The findings show that the everyday lives of YEH are organised across different places, routes, and routines. Public and semi-public spaces gained functional meaning by providing access to basic facilities, opportunities to wait or rest, and possibilities to work towards greater stability. Places also acquired social meaning through contact with peers, recognition, support, and experiences of community. Experiential meaning emerged through feelings such as rest, safety, stress, and alertness. Whether a place could fulfil these roles depended on its affordances, including accessibility, available facilities, opportunities to stay, the presence of others, and temporal conditions. These affordances were relational: the same place could support one YEH while being unsuitable for another, and its usefulness could change depending on a person’s needs at a particular moment.
The research therefore argues that space is not merely a background to homelessness, but forms part of how homelessness is experienced and managed in everyday life. This spatial perspective complements individual and structural explanations of homelessness and provides a basis for designing supportive spaces that better align with the everyday routines and needs of YEH.
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A qualitative research design was used, combining photovoice with semi-structured interviews. Nineteen YEH participated in the research and documented places that played a role in their everyday lives using digital cameras. The photographs were used as interview prompts to discuss how participants used and experienced these places. The data were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis, using functional, social, and experiential place meaning and enabling and constraining affordances as analytical concepts.
The findings show that the everyday lives of YEH are organised across different places, routes, and routines. Public and semi-public spaces gained functional meaning by providing access to basic facilities, opportunities to wait or rest, and possibilities to work towards greater stability. Places also acquired social meaning through contact with peers, recognition, support, and experiences of community. Experiential meaning emerged through feelings such as rest, safety, stress, and alertness. Whether a place could fulfil these roles depended on its affordances, including accessibility, available facilities, opportunities to stay, the presence of others, and temporal conditions. These affordances were relational: the same place could support one YEH while being unsuitable for another, and its usefulness could change depending on a person’s needs at a particular moment.
The research therefore argues that space is not merely a background to homelessness, but forms part of how homelessness is experienced and managed in everyday life. This spatial perspective complements individual and structural explanations of homelessness and provides a basis for designing supportive spaces that better align with the everyday routines and needs of YEH.
...
Youth homelessness is commonly approached through individual and structural explanations, while less attention is paid to the role of space in how homelessness is experienced in everyday life. This research examines how young adults experiencing homelessness (YEH) in Amsterdam attribute meaning to urban public spaces and how these meanings are related to the affordances of these spaces.
A qualitative research design was used, combining photovoice with semi-structured interviews. Nineteen YEH participated in the research and documented places that played a role in their everyday lives using digital cameras. The photographs were used as interview prompts to discuss how participants used and experienced these places. The data were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis, using functional, social, and experiential place meaning and enabling and constraining affordances as analytical concepts.
The findings show that the everyday lives of YEH are organised across different places, routes, and routines. Public and semi-public spaces gained functional meaning by providing access to basic facilities, opportunities to wait or rest, and possibilities to work towards greater stability. Places also acquired social meaning through contact with peers, recognition, support, and experiences of community. Experiential meaning emerged through feelings such as rest, safety, stress, and alertness. Whether a place could fulfil these roles depended on its affordances, including accessibility, available facilities, opportunities to stay, the presence of others, and temporal conditions. These affordances were relational: the same place could support one YEH while being unsuitable for another, and its usefulness could change depending on a person’s needs at a particular moment.
The research therefore argues that space is not merely a background to homelessness, but forms part of how homelessness is experienced and managed in everyday life. This spatial perspective complements individual and structural explanations of homelessness and provides a basis for designing supportive spaces that better align with the everyday routines and needs of YEH.
A qualitative research design was used, combining photovoice with semi-structured interviews. Nineteen YEH participated in the research and documented places that played a role in their everyday lives using digital cameras. The photographs were used as interview prompts to discuss how participants used and experienced these places. The data were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis, using functional, social, and experiential place meaning and enabling and constraining affordances as analytical concepts.
The findings show that the everyday lives of YEH are organised across different places, routes, and routines. Public and semi-public spaces gained functional meaning by providing access to basic facilities, opportunities to wait or rest, and possibilities to work towards greater stability. Places also acquired social meaning through contact with peers, recognition, support, and experiences of community. Experiential meaning emerged through feelings such as rest, safety, stress, and alertness. Whether a place could fulfil these roles depended on its affordances, including accessibility, available facilities, opportunities to stay, the presence of others, and temporal conditions. These affordances were relational: the same place could support one YEH while being unsuitable for another, and its usefulness could change depending on a person’s needs at a particular moment.
The research therefore argues that space is not merely a background to homelessness, but forms part of how homelessness is experienced and managed in everyday life. This spatial perspective complements individual and structural explanations of homelessness and provides a basis for designing supportive spaces that better align with the everyday routines and needs of YEH.
Feathers and Fuel
Merging Perspectives
Student report
(2025)
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J.S.M. van Bunningen, A.C. van 't Schip, D.P.G. Hermans, L. Peled, J.T. de Vries, L.M. Calabrese, Rodrigo Viseu Cardoso, J. Subendran
The Port of Rotterdam is currently undergoing a crucial energy transition, promoting the production of sustainable energy in the port to provide the Netherlands with clean energy. In current approaches, though, non-human species are severely underrepresented in the spatial design of the port. This makes the port inherently unsustainable because this approach destroys current ecosystems that are beneficial for the well-being of the space and the well-being of humans living and working in these spaces. (Jørgensen, 2009; Latour, 2012). This research builds on the Post-Anthropocene philosophy and expands on this concept by integrating spatial justice and an ecosystem approach into it. In this approach, we aim to create a design that considers humans and seagulls as inhabitants of one ecosystem. Based on spatial data about seagulls and humans, we create an analysis of the spatial needs of the two species. In the analysis, we also investigate differences in energy production sources and discuss which sources are spatially and ethically just. These analyses combined form the base of a just vision of the Port of Rotterdam during the energy transition. After this, we visualize the feasibility of the new vision for the port by creating a potential strategy to achieve the created vision. This strategy visualizes the timeline in which future policies and spatial interventions are represented. We zoomed in on three key projects, which we based on key principles our strategy aims to represent spatially. The report concludes with a discussion on how the research has impacted current energy transition approaches and reflects on the conceptual foundation this research builds upon. The reflection will additionally cover ethical constraints, this research’s impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, n.d.), its relevance to science and society, the incorporation of public goods, and recommendations for further research.
...
The Port of Rotterdam is currently undergoing a crucial energy transition, promoting the production of sustainable energy in the port to provide the Netherlands with clean energy. In current approaches, though, non-human species are severely underrepresented in the spatial design of the port. This makes the port inherently unsustainable because this approach destroys current ecosystems that are beneficial for the well-being of the space and the well-being of humans living and working in these spaces. (Jørgensen, 2009; Latour, 2012). This research builds on the Post-Anthropocene philosophy and expands on this concept by integrating spatial justice and an ecosystem approach into it. In this approach, we aim to create a design that considers humans and seagulls as inhabitants of one ecosystem. Based on spatial data about seagulls and humans, we create an analysis of the spatial needs of the two species. In the analysis, we also investigate differences in energy production sources and discuss which sources are spatially and ethically just. These analyses combined form the base of a just vision of the Port of Rotterdam during the energy transition. After this, we visualize the feasibility of the new vision for the port by creating a potential strategy to achieve the created vision. This strategy visualizes the timeline in which future policies and spatial interventions are represented. We zoomed in on three key projects, which we based on key principles our strategy aims to represent spatially. The report concludes with a discussion on how the research has impacted current energy transition approaches and reflects on the conceptual foundation this research builds upon. The reflection will additionally cover ethical constraints, this research’s impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, n.d.), its relevance to science and society, the incorporation of public goods, and recommendations for further research.